What to do?

[geonuc]

Neighborhood festival, beer & music festival, Georgia Ren Faire or maybe a movie. What to do today?

I could mow the backyard weeds, but I can't get the mower started. That's my excuse there.

[Cookie]

I can relate, I am good at finding excuses not to do chores....

[Rommie]

Last night I had a bunch of drunken astronomers dancing at my place until 4am. I am astounded the cops were not called.

Still in the process of trying to feel like a normal person with the aid of coffee, which will hopefully happen soon as I have an article due for Astronomy today. Man oh man I did not think that one through!

[geonuc]

Last night I had a bunch of drunken astronomers dancing at my place until 4am. I am astounded the cops were not called.

Still in the process of trying to feel like a normal person with the aid of coffee, which will hopefully happen soon as I have an article due for Astronomy today. Man oh man I did not think that one through!

Coffee, yes. Maybe some brisk exercise.

[Rommie]

Haha working better, but apparently there is such a thing as a hangover impulse purchase- I just bought an electronics kit on the Internet, one of those breadboards and build 300 different projects ones (I really liked building random crap like that in high school but I had no money so I'd just buy individual resistor bundles and wires etc at Radio Shack- I've now happily realized I have money and can just buy all the parts without scrounging).

Of course online means I've gotta wait a few days. But I wanna build a transistor radio now- this is gonna be worse than waiting for a decoder pin.

[geonuc]

Haha working better, but apparently there is such a thing as a hangover impulse purchase- I just bought an electronics kit on the Internet, one of those breadboards and build 300 different projects ones (I really liked building random crap like that in high school but I had no money so I'd just buy individual resistor bundles and wires etc at Radio Shack- I've now happily realized I have money and can just buy all the parts without scrounging).

Of course online means I've gotta wait a few days. But I wanna build a transistor radio now- this is gonna be worse than waiting for a decoder pin.

Maybe I want one, too. What did you buy exactly?

[SciFi Chick]

Haha working better, but apparently there is such a thing as a hangover impulse purchase- I just bought an electronics kit on the Internet, one of those breadboards and build 300 different projects ones (I really liked building random crap like that in high school but I had no money so I'd just buy individual resistor bundles and wires etc at Radio Shack- I've now happily realized I have money and can just buy all the parts without scrounging).

Of course online means I've gotta wait a few days. But I wanna build a transistor radio now- this is gonna be worse than waiting for a decoder pin.

Maybe I want one, too. What did you buy exactly?

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking. Maybe this impulse buying thing is contagious.

[geonuc]

Probably is, probably is.

Well, I think I'll do the neighborhood festival and a movie. Either Fast & Furious or Now You See Me. I'm too lazy to drive to the Ren Faire today and besides, that's not much fun alone. Neither is the beer fest.

[Rommie]

Haha working better, but apparently there is such a thing as a hangover impulse purchase- I just bought an electronics kit on the Internet, one of those breadboards and build 300 different projects ones (I really liked building random crap like that in high school but I had no money so I'd just buy individual resistor bundles and wires etc at Radio Shack- I've now happily realized I have money and can just buy all the parts without scrounging).

Of course online means I've gotta wait a few days. But I wanna build a transistor radio now- this is gonna be worse than waiting for a decoder pin.

Maybe I want one, too. What did you buy exactly?

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking. Maybe this impulse buying thing is contagious.

This one- http://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?c ... &id=341829 I picked it up for around 100 Euro from a Dutch seller but I think the company does stuff with Radio Shack- they do a lot of smaller kits too, but for those you have to solder (and I think this'll keep me busy all summer ).

Of course it's occurred to me that I should probably finally learn how to solder properly after I bought it, but I can always buy one and some circuit boards and put together my favorites from the kit, right?

[SciFi Chick]

Oh my god! You will LOVE soldering. It's sooooo much fun! I know you well enough to know that you will love it. If you haven't learned by the next time we see each other, I'll get FZ to show you.

I learned for my job in Australia - the one we walked away from - and that was my favorite part about the job.

[SciFi Chick]

Probably is, probably is.

Well, I think I'll do the neighborhood festival and a movie. Either Fast & Furious or Now You See Me. I'm too lazy to drive to the Ren Faire today and besides, that's not much fun alone. Neither is the beer fest.

Wish I could join you for the beer fest, but I haven't worked out how to teleport yet, goddamnit!

[FZR1KG]

Neighborhood festival, beer & music festival, Georgia Ren Faire or maybe a movie. What to do today?

I could mow the backyard weeds, but I can't get the mower started. That's my excuse there.

I just went through that.
Had a flat tire.
$60 for a tire or $60 for a tire and a rim but the rim wasn't the right type, needing two parallel faces ground on the axle shaft whereas the original was keyed.
Thought, screw this shit.
I can get the rim and tire for the same price at Lowes if I modify the axle shaft to fit it.
So an hour later using my new handy dandy digital calipers and a grinder the job was done.
Then I couldn't start the thing because the battery went dead over the winter.
So I jump start it and start mowing...till it runs out of fuel.
So drive to the petrol station with a jerry can and fuel up and restart mowing till it stalls and won't restart.
So jump start it again.
Then it stalls again.
So I get a new battery.
It stalls again, always when engaging the blades (its a 42inch ride on).
So I lift the mower and see that at some point during the mowing one blade got bent downwards and was hitting the ground every time I engaged it.
So I drive to TSC, no blades for my mower, drive to Lowes, no blades for my mower.
Drive home and drink beer because I figured I've done my best to mow this damned lawn but it does not want to be mowed today!
Still waiting on the blades...

So yeah, go have a beer and save yourself the frustration. Your mower wants you to drink beer.

[SciFi Chick]

[geonuc]

This one- http://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?c ... &id=341829 I picked it up for around 100 Euro from a Dutch seller but I think the company does stuff with Radio Shack- they do a lot of smaller kits too, but for those you have to solder (and I think this'll keep me busy all summer ).

Of course it's occurred to me that I should probably finally learn how to solder properly after I bought it, but I can always buy one and some circuit boards and put together my favorites from the kit, right?

Soldering is definitely something you'd like, I think. I'm fairly proficient, if a bit rusty, from my Navy electronics technician training.

[geonuc]

I just went through that.
Had a flat tire.
$60 for a tire or $60 for a tire and a rim but the rim wasn't the right type, needing two parallel faces ground on the axle shaft whereas the original was keyed.
Thought, screw this shit.
I can get the rim and tire for the same price at Lowes if I modify the axle shaft to fit it.
So an hour later using my new handy dandy digital calipers and a grinder the job was done.
Then I couldn't start the thing because the battery went dead over the winter.
So I jump start it and start mowing...till it runs out of fuel.
So drive to the petrol station with a jerry can and fuel up and restart mowing till it stalls and won't restart.
So jump start it again.
Then it stalls again.
So I get a new battery.
It stalls again, always when engaging the blades (its a 42inch ride on).
So I lift the mower and see that at some point during the mowing one blade got bent downwards and was hitting the ground every time I engaged it.
So I drive to TSC, no blades for my mower, drive to Lowes, no blades for my mower.
Drive home and drink beer because I figured I've done my best to mow this damned lawn but it does not want to be mowed today!
Still waiting on the blades...

So yeah, go have a beer and save yourself the frustration. Your mower wants you to drink beer.

LOL. I haven't put quite that much effort into it. I've only tried adding fuel stabilizer, emptying the tank and refreshing with new fuel and pulling the damn cord about twenty zillion times. I think it might not be getting spark, so I need to look into that. Or buy a cordless electric. I don't have a lot of mowable yard.

[Rommie]

This one- http://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?c ... &id=341829 I picked it up for around 100 Euro from a Dutch seller but I think the company does stuff with Radio Shack- they do a lot of smaller kits too, but for those you have to solder (and I think this'll keep me busy all summer ).

Of course it's occurred to me that I should probably finally learn how to solder properly after I bought it, but I can always buy one and some circuit boards and put together my favorites from the kit, right?

Soldering is definitely something you'd like, I think. I'm fairly proficient, if a bit rusty, from my Navy electronics technician training.

I have done soldering actually but not in an electronics sense- when I was in 9th grade art class we did it to fuse pieces of metal together for artwork.

One of those things that somehow I hadn't done since.

[FZR1KG]

Soldering is pretty easy when you're shown the right way to do it.
There is always something to learn as it turns out.
I've been soldering since I was about 15 years old.
A few years ago I had to do it in a production setting.
Soldering thousands of connections a day.
I think I peaked at close to 4000 per hour on some jobs.

I know that figure sounds ridiculous but it can be done but its highly dependent on the board layout.
I wouldn't have thought it possible till I did it.
It requires a really top end soldering iron, solder and environment and careful settings of temperature and selection of tips.
When doing hand soldering of SMD devices with a wave tip you can actually get higher than that figure but its only for a minute or so.

To do standard stuff (thru hole) you can get by with a simple and good soldering iron and good quality multicore solder.
If everything is clean its almost effortless.

Apply heat using a pre-wetted tip and feed the solder into the junction of both the pad/part and iron.
It then just does its job like magic.


On a totally different issue, my mower blades arrived but the wife is gone with the MIL in my truck (MIL's had a dead battery which I just replaced under warranty) but all my tools are in the truck. So I can't fit the blades and mow the lawn.
Looks to be beer day again. Well, as soon as I cook dinner for when they get back anyway.

[cid]

Haha working better, but apparently there is such a thing as a hangover impulse purchase- I just bought an electronics kit on the Internet, one of those breadboards and build 300 different projects ones (I really liked building random crap like that in high school but I had no money so I'd just buy individual resistor bundles and wires etc at Radio Shack- I've now happily realized I have money and can just buy all the parts without scrounging).

Of course online means I've gotta wait a few days. But I wanna build a transistor radio now- this is gonna be worse than waiting for a decoder pin.

Okay, once you get your feet rehydrated in the hobby, next step is a QRP transceiver or two...like these... oh yeah, almost forgot...they're morse code only...

[Rommie]

Haha working better, but apparently there is such a thing as a hangover impulse purchase- I just bought an electronics kit on the Internet, one of those breadboards and build 300 different projects ones (I really liked building random crap like that in high school but I had no money so I'd just buy individual resistor bundles and wires etc at Radio Shack- I've now happily realized I have money and can just buy all the parts without scrounging).

Of course online means I've gotta wait a few days. But I wanna build a transistor radio now- this is gonna be worse than waiting for a decoder pin.

Okay, once you get your feet rehydrated in the hobby, next step is a QRP transceiver or two...like these... oh yeah, almost forgot...they're morse code only...

Never did CW sorry- I'm definitely more of a voice person, especially in contests, and I like to think I'm good at it also not just cause I'm a YL.

I've actually thought about setting up a Ham radio rig in my apartment cause I'm on the 4th floor of the house and have a roof terrace above... but then I realized living in the historic area means there's no way in hell they'd let me put up an antenna to use it.

Should probably redouble efforts to just find a club and use their stuff now that DX should be good; frankly the only Ham radio thing I've done since moving here is renew my license.